We investigate the properties of finite gold nanocones as optical antennas for enhancing molecular fluorescence.
We compute the modification of the excitation rate, spontaneous emission rate, and quantum efficiency as a
function of the nanocone base and length, showing that the maximum field and fluorescence enhancements
do not occur for the same nanocone parameters. We compare the results with those for nanorods and
nanospheroids and find that nanocones perform better.